Avard: Trumpets approval of still secret contract
In a lopsided vote, the Manchester Education Association approved a tentative agreement reached with Board of School Committee’s Negotiations Committee. The tally was four hundred ninety eight in favor, one hundred ninety eight opposed. Superintendent Debra Livingston said she was pleased with the vote and that all parties worked hard to get to this point, noting that both the Board of School Committee and the Board of Mayor and Aldermen have to approve the contract.
Manchester Mayor Ted Gatsas declined to comment on the vote.
Gatsas: “I have no comment.” Interesting.
We’d like to tell you what the deal includes, but Livingston declined to release the document, saying only that it was decided that Negotiations Committee Chairman John Avard had dominion over when the contract was released. In social media posts last night, Avard refused to release the contract saying corrections were needed to the document before it was made public. Once finalized, he said he would direct the administration to release it today. Livingston said the contract’s financial impact assessments would be included with the release.
Dick: A happy guy
M E A President Ben Dick deferred to Avard when asked for a copy of the contract, saying he was happy with the vote, but had several hours of being a teacher ahead of him last night so he could get Senior grades in before graduation, which is tomorrow. Once we get the contract, we’ll be sure to share it with you. It’s expected to be on the school board’s June twenty second meeting agenda.
Dion: Killer returned home
Matthew Dion is back in state. You may recall Dion is the fellow who ruthlessly murdered his elderly parents in their home on Mooresville Road then blew it up in an attempt to cover up the crime. Didn’t work. Dion was able to evade an intense man hunt, escaping to Florida where he was able to hide until someone caught pictures of him on Facebook. New Hampshire Attorney General Joseph Foster and Assistant Manchester Police Chief Nick Willard announced that he will be arraigned in Manchester District Court at ten this morning by video, on two counts of second degree murder, one count of arson, and three counts of possession of child pornography.
Pataki: Postpones campaign events
A family emergency caused former Republican New York Governor George Pataki to postpone his presidential campaign trip to New Hampshire this week. Pataki’s thirty year old son in law Dr. David Levy, who is married to his pregnant with their first child daughter Allison, suffered a serious stroke while traveling on an airplane to Seattle from Chicago for vacation. The plane was diverted to Fargo, North Dakota where Levy was hospitalized and later transported to Rush University Medical Center back home in Chicago. We’ll certainly keep him and the family in our prayers.
News from our own backyard continues after this.
Hassan: In favor of enabling non-resident voting. Ayuh!
Her Highness the Governess Margaret Wood Hassan’s office announced yesterday she’s likely to veto Senate Bill One Seventy Nine. That’s the legislation that defines and clarifies that a person’s domicile for voting purposes “shall be the principal or primary home or place of abode of a person” and goes on to define that as something that would exclude dorm rooms and flop houses for out of state campaign workers. The bill also requires that, prior to voting, the person live in the state for thirty consecutive days and changes the voter registration form to make clear who is and is not eligible to vote in New Hampshire.
Gardner: Supports only legal residents voting.
The bill has the support of Secretary of State Bill Gardner, who, on this show two and a half years ago, decried New Hampshire’s system of drive by voting, saying he himself witnessed the voter fraud enabled by the system at his home polling place in Manchester’s Ward Two. You can imagine the state GOP, among others including Citizens for a Strong N H, issued statements hammering her.
Ayotte: A future victim of voter fraud?
Fact is, this is no surprise. With her U. S. Senate campaign gearing up, Maggie knows she’s going to need the votes of every out of state Democrat drive by voter she can get and this bill will at least do something to stand in the way. The irony is, as Attorney General, Kelly Ayotte did little if anything to stem the rising tide of voter fraud in NH and, in a close race, that just may come back to haunt her.
Steenson: Nancy Obama?
Video from the April second meeting of the Timberlane Regional School Board is making the rounds as supporters of Sandown Selectman Cindy Buco make the case that School Board Chair Nancy Steenson way overstepped her bounds when she appointed fellow board member Rob Collins to chair the Sandown Withdrawal Feasibility Committee.
Buco: The facts are on her side.
Buco was elected co-Chair along with School Board member Kelly Ward of Sandown. Ward stepped down as co-chair, which in the rest of the world, would mean Buco assumed the chairmanship. But, since Buco learned of Ward’s decision in the email from Steenson which announced Collins’ appointment, there has been a raging dispute over who is the legitimate chair.
In her email, Steenson said she had the authority as Chair of the school board to make the appointment. But, in the video, (forward to 03:05:54) she claims, just like President Obama, she had no such authority. We’ll be taking a listen to the audio of the meeting this morning during the seven o’clock hour and sharing more of what’s going on in general. Stay tuned, this is better than the Real Housewives of anyplace!
Yogi: Not identified as the bear in Candia
Believe it or not, a bear was seen in the woods near the school on Deerfield Road in Candia. Ayuh! Police there issued an alert asking residents in the area to take down bird feeders and remove any food items the bear may be after. There was no information on whether or not the bear was observed pooping in the woods. So, the existential question of whether or not bears do that there remains unanswered, at least for now.
That’s news from our own backyard, Girard at Large hour ___ is next.
